How to Make Your Content Stand Out

In a space as crowded as that of online content, it can be pretty frustrating to feel like your content is just another drop in the ocean.

Here, I’ll explain how you can use a few simple techniques to make your content stand out from the rest, so you can get more readers, more engagement and more prospective customers.

Avoid Shallow Hooks

If you’ve ever taken a speech class, then you’re already familiar with the idea of a “hook.” Hooks are designed the grab the audience’s attention, and often involve trying to relate to the audience. That’s why many students’ speeches will begin with a something like “How many of you have ever watched a superhero movie?” or “Raise your hand if you love birthday cake.”

Of course, an opening hook like that is fine for a presentation, but many inexperienced content creators fall back on them for what’s supposed to be professional-grade writing. They do this because it’s a relatively easy and familiar tactic–find a way to relate to the vast majority of your audience, introduce your point and then dive in.

However, simple hooks like that are often completely transparent to readers, especially if they’re overly lengthy or only loosely related to the body of the content. To avoid this, you’ll want to spend a little more time on your opening sentences to make sure they’re genuinely relatable and intriguing.

Try to write hooks that are:

Compelling.

Brief.

Closely related to the body of the content.

This way, your introductions won’t come off to readers as superficial, pandering or low-effort, and you’ll be able to foster more meaningful connections with your audience.

For example, in an article about cybersecurity, you might start off with a hook that looks something like this:

“According to a recent study, there were an astonishing 160,000 cybersecurity incidents in 2017. Clearly, the cybersecurity measures already in place aren’t adequate, and it’s high time we do something about it.”

A hook like that works because it’s only two sentences long, incorporates an interesting statistic and references an action.

Once you’ve written the hook, you can explain what the article will specifically address, which in the case of our cybersecurity example will be the prevalence of breaches, the security that’s being used and the security that should be used instead.

Establish Credibility

If you can establish credibility for yourself, your company and your content, you’ll automatically set yourself apart from the competition.

The easiest way to do this is to do deep research in your content and demonstrate your unique expertise while referencing and linking to credible sources. Of course, research and hard facts are ideal, but a thought piece that reflects the author’s personal opinion and viewpoint will do just fine as well, especially if the author is an established industry analyst or executive.

To take your expertise to the next level, start poking around to see if you can write a guest post on a popular blog or get a mention from a prominent person in your field. To do this, you’ll need to reach out to people you don’t know–in other words, you’ll have to start cold emailing. The Harvard Business Review has a helpful guide to cold emailing that includes tips like:

Tailor your email to the recipient.

Validate yourself.

Keep it concise and actionable.

The more you put yourself out there, the more likely it is that someone will respond and accept your request to write a guest post or get referenced in their content.

According to these guidelines, a site’s quality is determined by four primary factors:

Expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness, which depends on factual accuracy, expert sources and professionalism.

Main content quality and amount, which can be determined by evaluating the time, effort and skill that went into creating that content. Sites with too little content are generally rated lower than sites with more content.

Website information/information about who is responsible for the website. Websites that provide clear information about who is responsible for the website generally receive higher ratings than those that do not.

Website reputation, which can be gauged with the help of Better Business Bureau ratings, customer reviews and information from sites like Wikipedia.

If you adhere to these guidelines and meet Google’s standards of high-quality sites, your website will likely rank higher in Google search results, and will thus be more likely to experience an influx in traffic.

Chat a Little

If you comment on five companies’ social media posts and only one company responds to you, which company are you most likely to engage with again? Although I probably don’t need to say it, the answer is the company that responded to you.

This is why responding to your readers whenever they do reach out to you is so important. Especially if you have a small audience, fostering a sense of personal connection is absolutely crucial to your growth and your audience’s loyalty.

When chatting with your audience, be sure to keep it thoughtful, amicable and respectful. Address your readers by their first name for an extra sense of personalization, and remember to thank them for asking questions or contributing thoughts.

While responding to people is certainly important, it can sometimes be more important to know when to restrain yourself. In the age of social media, many companies have permanently tarnished their reputation by responding less-than-professionally to aggressive or critical comments. Learn from their mistakes, and always remain polite when interacting with critics. When in doubt, simply ask them to contact a member of your team to receive further help.

With these strategies in your tool box, you’ll be able to take your content from generic to noteworthy. If you remember to keep your hooks interesting, establish credibility whenever possible and engage with your audience at every opportunity, you’ll have no trouble standing out from your competition.

Testimonials

Jessica leads one of the most professional content agencies I’ve ever worked with. We target a very niche industry, and Jessica and her team were very thoughtful in their approach. From planning thoughtful pieces, to researching and interviewing SMEs, to brainstorming promotion strategies, Jessica and her team maintain a high degree of professionalism and efficiency.

Steven S., Senior Manager, Demand Generation, Rentlytics

2018-07-31T17:22:53+00:00

Steven S., Senior Manager, Demand Generation, Rentlytics

Jessica leads one of the most professional content agencies I’ve ever worked with. We target a very niche industry, and Jessica and her team were very thoughtful in their approach. From planning thoughtful pieces, to researching and interviewing SMEs, to brainstorming promotion strategies, Jessica and her team maintain a high degree of professionalism and efficiency.

Jessica dedicated her time as a pro-bono volunteer with VolunteerMatch to help us with some key content marketing needs. What impressed me most about working with Jessica was the way she tailored her approach to accommodate the needs of our nonprofit with the resource constraints of our team. Jessica developed personas, one-pagers, case studies and website content that has resulted in an increase in traffic to our site and improved our ability to communicate to our key audiences.

Bree v.F., Director of Marketing and Engagement, VolunteerMatch

2018-07-31T17:22:20+00:00

Bree v.F., Director of Marketing and Engagement, VolunteerMatch

Jessica dedicated her time as a pro-bono volunteer with VolunteerMatch to help us with some key content marketing needs. What impressed me most about working with Jessica was the way she tailored her approach to accommodate the needs of our nonprofit with the resource constraints of our team. Jessica developed personas, one-pagers, case studies and website content that has resulted in an increase in traffic to our site and improved our ability to communicate to our key audiences.

I've worked with Jessica at her company bizbuzzcontent for years. It's my go-to provider whenever my team is looking for high-quality content. What differentiates bizbuzzcontent is that they not only have superior writing skills but a rare ability to completely understand our industry, our company positioning, brand voice and tone, and customers. This just makes the content highly targeted and relevant, and goes a long way in achieving our marketing goals.

Nag P., Sr. Manager, Product Marketing, Salesforce

2018-07-31T17:22:31+00:00

Nag P., Sr. Manager, Product Marketing, Salesforce

I've worked with Jessica at her company bizbuzzcontent for years. It's my go-to provider whenever my team is looking for high-quality content. What differentiates bizbuzzcontent is that they not only have superior writing skills but a rare ability to completely understand our industry, our company positioning, brand voice and tone, and customers. This just makes the content highly targeted and relevant, and goes a long way in achieving our marketing goals.

I love Jessica and the team over at bizbuzzcontent. Within just a matter of a few interactions, she was able to understand, in depth, our complex solution and business model. Since then, she's been critical to us in driving compelling, engaging content via our blogs and white papers. She's a wonderful, thoughtful person to work with, and the work she's done has been a key factor in increasing our conversion rates.

Collin S., Angel Investor and Technology Executive

2018-07-31T17:22:41+00:00

Collin S., Angel Investor and Technology Executive

I love Jessica and the team over at bizbuzzcontent. Within just a matter of a few interactions, she was able to understand, in depth, our complex solution and business model. Since then, she's been critical to us in driving compelling, engaging content via our blogs and white papers. She's a wonderful, thoughtful person to work with, and the work she's done has been a key factor in increasing our conversion rates.

bizbuzzcontent helps me efficiently leverage my own subject-matter expertise to create original content on timely topics. Together, we are able to distill complex topics into client-friendly articles that I can use across multiple platforms. I especially appreciate bizzbuzz’s super-efficient process because it keeps me on track for timely production of new content. Jessica Lee is a pleasure to work with, and I rely on her to bring a strategic eye to my publication efforts.

Priya H., Partner, Woodruff-Sawyer & Co.

2018-07-31T17:23:04+00:00

Priya H., Partner, Woodruff-Sawyer & Co.

bizbuzzcontent helps me efficiently leverage my own subject-matter expertise to create original content on timely topics. Together, we are able to distill complex topics into client-friendly articles that I can use across multiple platforms. I especially appreciate bizzbuzz’s super-efficient process because it keeps me on track for timely production of new content. Jessica Lee is a pleasure to work with, and I rely on her to bring a strategic eye to my publication efforts.

Jessica is a great content creator, writer, reporter and partner to work with. Highly articulate with strong content values and work ethos, Jessica adds great value to all projects she works on. I would happily recommend Jessica to people who wish to scale their content marketing efforts.

Andy B., C-Level Marketing and Strategy Consultant

2018-07-31T17:23:14+00:00

Andy B., C-Level Marketing and Strategy Consultant

Jessica is a great content creator, writer, reporter and partner to work with. Highly articulate with strong content values and work ethos, Jessica adds great value to all projects she works on. I would happily recommend Jessica to people who wish to scale their content marketing efforts.

Jessica is a guest speaker of Microsoft internal training program. She made an awesome presentation of how to create marketable web ages to Microsoft Bing Ads product team and services team. Attendees found Jessica very engaging during the presentation. Microsoft Bing Ads is eager to apply the learning in our daily works, and look forward to partnering with Jessica to bring more value to digital advertising community.

Ping J., Product Manager, Microsoft Bing Ads

2018-07-31T17:21:44+00:00

Ping J., Product Manager, Microsoft Bing Ads

Jessica is a guest speaker of Microsoft internal training program. She made an awesome presentation of how to create marketable web ages to Microsoft Bing Ads product team and services team. Attendees found Jessica very engaging during the presentation. Microsoft Bing Ads is eager to apply the learning in our daily works, and look forward to partnering with Jessica to bring more value to digital advertising community.

Jessica has been instrumental in building our content strategy from ground up, educating our stakeholders and increasing our exposure across all lines of insurance. I can say with confidence that she has been a critical extension of the marketing team, always producing timely deliverable. She has always been enthusiastic about creating new formats for us and new vehicles of information to help the marketing team raise awareness and drive internal adoption. Her most impressive feat from my perspective is how quickly and seamlessly she dived into our 12 lines of insurance. The dexterity and the level of expertise she demonstrated although she had never worked with insurance B2B client was absolutely incredible.

Stephanie M., VP Marketing Communications, Woodruff-Sawyer & Co.

2018-07-31T17:21:33+00:00

Stephanie M., VP Marketing Communications, Woodruff-Sawyer & Co.

Jessica has been instrumental in building our content strategy from ground up, educating our stakeholders and increasing our exposure across all lines of insurance. I can say with confidence that she has been a critical extension of the marketing team, always producing timely deliverable. She has always been enthusiastic about creating new formats for us and new vehicles of information to help the marketing team raise awareness and drive internal adoption. Her most impressive feat from my perspective is how quickly and seamlessly she dived into our 12 lines of insurance. The dexterity and the level of expertise she demonstrated although she had never worked with insurance B2B client was absolutely incredible.

We can't imagine how we managed without bizbuzzcontent before! Working with Jessica Lee is a dream. She is very creative and understands new concepts quickly. The content creation process at bizbuzzcontent is the most efficient we have come across in our many years of working with other writers and agencies. If you want an excellent content program and a company that goes above and beyond, hire bizbuzzcontent today!

Pauline J., CEO, Group Twenty Seven

2018-07-31T17:21:10+00:00

Pauline J., CEO, Group Twenty Seven

We can't imagine how we managed without bizbuzzcontent before! Working with Jessica Lee is a dream. She is very creative and understands new concepts quickly. The content creation process at bizbuzzcontent is the most efficient we have come across in our many years of working with other writers and agencies. If you want an excellent content program and a company that goes above and beyond, hire bizbuzzcontent today!

Jessica and her team at bizbuzzcontent have been a trusted partner for years, and have helped us with our blog, web copy and email marketing, in addition to providing lots of guidance on other content projects. The team is able to quickly get up to speed on any content project's requirements and create quality content that's on target. Over the years, they've helped us educate, drive brand awareness and website traffic. I would definitely recommend bizbuzzcontent for content services.

Ashley G., Digital Ad Management, SearchForce

2018-07-31T17:18:31+00:00

Ashley G., Digital Ad Management, SearchForce

Jessica and her team at bizbuzzcontent have been a trusted partner for years, and have helped us with our blog, web copy and email marketing, in addition to providing lots of guidance on other content projects. The team is able to quickly get up to speed on any content project's requirements and create quality content that's on target. Over the years, they've helped us educate, drive brand awareness and website traffic. I would definitely recommend bizbuzzcontent for content services.